


The Midst of Our Rough Earthliness

by mithrel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Baking, Blanket Permission, Community: sabriel_bday, Drunkenness, Fluff, M/M, Podfic Welcome, Puppies, Schmoop, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-15
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-13 17:20:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A drunk Sammy admits to Gabriel his sadness at the fact that he & Dean didn't have such a not normal childhood. Gabriel & Cass, mainly Gabriel planning and Castiel following along, set out to give their Winchesters the childhood memories they never got. A puppy, trip to Disneyland, and any other fun "Kiddie" thing the archangel can think of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Midst of Our Rough Earthliness

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to lady_drace for the beta! Title from a quote by Henri Frederic Amiel: “Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.”

Sam doesn’t even remember it afterwards, which isn’t surprising given how shitfaced he was, but Gabriel does and he has Plans.

It all started after the Winchesters and Cas all nearly got themselves killed on a hunt. Sam doesn’t drink often, thankfully, not like Dean. But when he does get drunk, it’s almost guaranteed he’ll get maudlin, and almost guaranteed he’ll lament the “normal life” he didn’t have. Gabriel’s been observing humans for centuries, and, in his experience, there’s no such thing.

“’Slike when we were kids,” Sam slurs, a finger waving unsteadily in front of him for emphasis. He gets distracted moving it back and forth and doesn’t continue.

“What about it?” Gabriel prompts him, despite his better judgement.

“’Slike…’slike…” Sam’s brow furrows for a moment, then he seems to remember what he was saying. “Other kids, _normal_ kids, they get…puppies and–and Little League and shit. We got shitty motel rooms and a new school every month and shit like that.”

Gabriel reflects that Sam’s vocabulary becomes both narrower and more vulgar when he’s drunk. “So?”

“So? _So?!_ ” Sam focuses on him woozily. “So iss sno’ fair!”

“I dunno if anyone’s ever told you this kiddo, but life’s not fair.”

Sam considers this for a moment, then flips him off and slides off his chair.

***

Gabriel doesn’t like to see Sam unhappy. Which means _he’s_ unhappy most of the time, considering the constant horror movie slash soap opera slash shitstorm that is the Winchesters’ lives.

So if he can do something to fix Sam’s childhood–well, okay, not _fix_ it, that’s beyond even his considerable power–but to give him the experiences he missed, he’s going to.

And, of course, helping Sam means helping Dean by default.

Which means there’s no way he’s not getting Cas involved, whether he likes it or not.

***

Cas understands why he’s doing this, wonder of wonders, and even “commends him for the sentiment,” (Gabriel snorts thinking about it) but he doesn’t exactly have a list of ideas.

Luckily, Gabriel’s got enough for both of them.

***

The first thing’s easy. After all, Sam had mentioned it, and Gabriel’s no stranger to conjuring up dogs.

The problem is breed. There are a lot of puppies out there, and he doesn’t know which to pick.

Cas is no help. He pets all the puppies Gabriel conjures up, looking bemused and somewhat distasteful when they lick his face, but when Gabriel asks him which he likes best, Cas just says, “They are all equally appealing.”

So Gabriel throws his hands up and decides to use all of them, with a couple mutts thrown in for good measure.

***

Gabriel doesn’t appear when the Winchesters open the door to the motel room, wanting to see their reaction without knowing he did it.

He’s puppy-proofed the room, putting all the weapons away, spreading newspaper in the bathroom and scattering some toys around (not that he won’t clean up any messes that they make.)

Sam’s eyes travel around the room, his mouth slowly sagging wider. Dean’s face turns red and his jaw clenches.

Two of the puppies, a Samoyed that’s nothing more than a white puffball, and a Golden Retriever, are playing tug-of-war with a braided and knotted rope toy. There’s a beagle puppy on Sam’s bed, a St. Bernard on Dean’s, and a Lab rolling on its back to scratch it in the middle of the room.

Before they can say anything, a small long-haired dog of indeterminate breed runs over to Sam and puts its front paws on his leg, its short tail wagging hard enough to power a city block.

Sam reaches down to scratch its floppy ears almost automatically. The dog puts all its feet on the floor and pushes up against his calves.

“What the–” Dean begins.

Time to make his grand entrance. “Like it?”

Dean whirls on him. “I should have known you’d be behind this!”

“Is that any kind of a thank you?” Gabriel demands.

Sam sits gingerly on his bed. The little mutt jumps up next to him, as the beagle wakes up and starts licking his face. “You know we can’t– _keep_ them,” Sam manages between licks.

“Who said anything about keeping them? Just play with them for awhile.”

“I’m not playing with anything you conjured up!” Dean growls, just as the Samoyed drops the rope and trots over to him, tail waving. “Scram!”

The puppy’s ears go down and it whimpers.

“Dean.”

Dean jumps at the soft voice, then appeals to Castiel for support. “Look what he did to the room!”

Castiel cocks his head. “It is not damaged.” He snaps his fingers, and the chastened Samoyed hurries over to him.

“Maybe not yet, but it sure as fuck _will_ be! Puppies chew, they pee, they poop–”

“I’ll clean up any messes they make,” Gabriel breaks in. “Honestly, Deano, can’t you have any fun at all?”

Dean looks from Gabriel, to a disapproving Castiel, to his puppy-covered brother, sighs, squats down and whistles.

***

A few days later, Gabriel hatches the next part of his plan. Normally he just snaps up his sweets, but that won’t work for this.

The Winchesters’ latest motel room has a kitchenette. Gabriel snaps up an oven and he and Cas get started.

When the Winchesters arrive, Cas (who Gabriel made put on an apron, despite his objections) is covered in flour, there are chocolate drips all over the counter and floor, and bowls, spoons, mixers and various ingredients strewn everywhere.

Gabriel grins at them from under his chef’s hat. “Hey guys!”

Dean opens his mouth, shuts it, then manages, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Making brownies,” Gabriel says, pouring the batter in a pan and popping it in the oven. “Here, you can lick the bowl.”

After a moment Sam comes over and takes the beater Gabriel holds out to him. Gabriel pretends not to notice when Dean shares the bowl with Cas.

***

The next thing is actually Cas’ idea. He doesn’t get _why_ kids do it, but he claims he’s seen them do it.

So Gabriel transforms the motel parking lot into a huge lawn, with haystack-sized piles of leaves scattered everywhere.

Sam doesn’t even comment this time, just raises his eyebrows at him. Dean shakes his head, clearly wondering if the archangel has gone crazy(er). “What is this?”

“Haven’t you ever jumped in a pile of leaves, Winchester?” Gabriel asks, suiting action to word and causing a minor explosion as red and gold leaves drift down.

“Actually, no.”

Sam squawks as Gabriel pulls him down into the remnants of the leaf pile, then sighs and just lies there.

Gabriel yanks him up and forces him to jump in a couple more piles before Sam shakes him off and starts jumping on his own. Cas just looks bemused, and Dean snorts as if they’ve both gone crazy.

***

Gabriel’s saved the best for last. There’s been nothing going on for a few days, so he transports the Winchesters to Disneyland.

They’ve got premium access, of course, and once Sam and Dean get over being flabbergasted they start to enjoy themselves.

They go on the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain (Cas, of course, complains about getting wet) and visit the Sleeping Beauty Castle, where Gabriel insists on getting pictures with every single character.

Dean’s amassed a small pile of souvenirs, and Sam’s smiling like Gabriel hasn’t seen in ages when they stop for lunch.

In the afternoon, they go on the teacup ride. Cas expresses curiosity about “It’s a Small World,” but both Sam and Dean tell him “ _NO!_ ”

Gabriel zaps them back to the motel at the end of the day, full, sunburned and exhausted. Dean falls asleep immediately, but Sam stops him from leaving with a hand on his arm.

“Yeah, kiddo?”

“I know why you’re doing this.”

“Doing what?” He still hates to be caught being nice.

“The puppies, the brownies, the leaves…you want to make up for what we missed.”

Gabriel bristles. “So what if I am?”

Sam doesn’t answer, just hugs him tight and whispers “Thank you.”


End file.
